What is the Instagram algorithm?
The Instagram algorithm is the set of rules that controls your content’s reach (the total number of people who see your content!).
The Instagram algorithm decides which content gets seen by your followers!
The Instagram algorithm decides which content gets seen by your followers. Whenever a person opens the app, the algorithm instantly trawls through all available content, and decides:
- Which posts appear at the top of your newsfeed and in what order.
- The order in which Stories, live videos Reels and IGTV videos are shown.
- Which posts are featured on the Explore tab.
How does Instagram decide what content to show to users at any given time?
Instagram looks at users past behaviour and then combs through all available content, evaluating which content will be of most interest. The most appropriate content to each user then goes to the top!
To do this, Instagram uses rankings based on thousands of individual data points and these rankings fall under three main categories:
1. Relationship
The algorithm decides whether to show a post based on your relationship and engagement with your followers. The more you engage with your followers, the greater the likelihood of your content been featured!
2. Timeliness
The Instagram algorithm assumes that the most recent posts are most important to people. While all posts do at some point, show up in a user’s feed, newer posts tend to rank higher than older posts.
Knowing when to post is one important way to stay one step ahead of the algorithm. While there is plenty of evidence-based information out there on the best days and times to post content, it’s important to remember that other business will probably also be doing the same, which can lead to content overload and dilution.
For businesses, posting consistently and identifying which days and times work best for your target audience is key which can be done by looking at your Instagram Analytics.
3. Interest
The main job of the algorithm is to give the people what they want! Instagram is good at understanding what is being featured in content and essentially matches this to user’s interests.
Ensuring your content truly appeals to your target audiences interests means there is a greater chance of it featuring at the of users feeds.
Don’t forget…
The power of hashtags!
Are hashtags still relevant ?! Yes! hasthags are still a great way for users to find your content easily and can help people discover you, even if they don’t follow you.
To use hashtags correctly though – don’t just use all most commonly used ones on everything! Instead, research what relates to your business and industry and use hashtags that describe what your post is about.
Instagram lets you use 30 hashtags on a regular post and up to 10 hashtags on a Story but just because you can use that many hashtags doesn’t mean you should!
The most common number of hashtags to use on Instagram is between 1 and 3 and the general consensus is that about 11 hashtags is a good number to start with.
All business are different and there’s no right number of hashtags – tailor your hashtags to your business and target audience and do some testing to determine what works best for you.
Still not sure about how instagram algorithms work? Give us a shout and we’d be happy to help!
